Dull grey, cold and dusty, that’s what characterises the period between winter and spring. At least that’s what I hear all around me. Even worse, people tell me that this is the best time to do all your late house work as there is nothing to see outside anyway. No need to go to the beach or a forest as there is no warm swimming water or even leaves on the trees. The only “new” birds coming back are Red-Winged Blackbirds and those are not interesting.

There are too many of them and they are everywhere. This is from people who do not look around them.

Often my family and friends ask me why I use my cellphone to take pictures when I have a big camera with me. Inevitably the next questions are if / why I prefer my phone and if the quality of the pictures is comparable. Sigh. I would say that the use of a camera depends on the moment.

You don’t always have a DSLR with you, but often enough a cellphone is all you have. At the same time, a cellphone’s ability to waste your time to find the camera app, start it and wait for it to initialise the camera in the cellphone may make you miss the moment.

It’s something we don’t need to hear very often. Even more in our overfed western world. For a while I was in a more eastern world and one would think that food would be scarce. Nothing is further from the truth. While homemade food is simpler than anything you can eat in a restaurant, it is made from real food. Food made from food, as a commercial here on TV states.

Well, if there is a need to specify that what you’re going to put in your mouth is really edible, there is a serious underlying problem. Namely that food is apparently not always made from food, but more created from chemistry and some wizardry. That looks like a losing battle to me.

One of the biggest problems of the working man or woman. If your work is taking up all your time and apparently leaves you no possibility to go out and have some “nature time” or “relaxation time”, well then you have a problem. I have seen this happen several times in my own life and in others’. Is there nothing you can do about that? It looks like there is no solution.

Between working time and leisure time there is only one constant: you. You are the one deciding if your spare time is spared for work or for something else. The problem is to come to that awareness that you have spare time. It looked as if my spare time was going to be in front of my keyboard since the beginning of this year.

When people are thinking about Canada, the first thing that comes to mind is COLD. So I will not disappoint you. Here is a post about cold. Before you go and run away, it might be an idea to think about what a cold landscape is. Not just about your freezing toes, the world doesn’t revolve around them.

It also doesn't revolve around Manitoba, although some people might disagree. Winterscapes, or winter landscapes are beautiful. For some, even more so because they can enjoy them from a nice warm spot on the beach..

I often heard my parents say “Back when I was young, things were so much simpler…”, together with yet another story about things I could have no idea about. I used to dismiss the stories as stories, without thinking that one day I might be doing the same. Well, almost. Unlike my parents, today I have pictures to back up those claims of simpler times.

It is not so long ago that I lived in Ukraine. A mere 13 years ago, to be exact. At that time, Ukraine was even different from what it is today. No signs of war or even unrest. Also hardly any signs of tourism. Coming to a country like that is a tourist’s dream. Everything seems unspoiled and authentic. Until you start talking with the people that know of different times, that is.

Ever since I was a kid, my parents told me not to shout and scream if it wasn’t necessary. They brought me up as a pretty quiet kid. There was no use for screaming or yelling in our house, not even to “express myself”. That kind of “expression” was pretty quickly taken care of.

Temper and tantrum were not part of my education. Later in life, some of the youngsters in school did have their outbursts; they made me feel weird. I was not used to this. When I arrived in Canada, I had to get used to another kind of outburst. One that would put me in awe of a spectacle not common to the region of my birth.

Photographing birds is nice. It’s relaxing, and gives sometimes spectacular results. But as time goes, it may give a somewhat warped image of my environment. There are not only birds here. There is lots more to enjoy in Manitoba.

While most of this is never promoted by the powers in place (past or present) there is way more to see and to enjoy. Often, the winter in Manitoba is depicted as brutally cold, possibly only superseded by Siberia in temperatures. The news of late did nothing to change that perception, by noting that Winnipeg was colder than the North Pole at a certain time.